UK commission backs bans, stripping of marks

Associated Press

Published 5:06 pm, Monday, January 11, 2016

All world records in track and field should be reset and lifetime bans should be imposed on serious drug cheats to clean up the sport amid its global doping crisis, the governing body of British athletics said Monday.

“The integrity of athletics was challenged as never before in 2015,” UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said. “Clean athletes and sports fans the world over have been let down. Trust in the sport is at its lowest point for decades.”

One of the federation’s proposals is to ‘investigate the implications of drawing a line under all pre-existing sport records ... and commencing a new set of records.”

“I’ll never agree with the records being wiped because I know 100 percent that at least one of those records was achieved clean and that means more were, too,” Radcliffe told the Guardian.

Radcliffe, who set the women’s marathon record with a time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 25 seconds at the 2003 London Marathon, was cleared by the IAAF last year of doping allegations following media reports of suspicious blood tests.

“Without doubt, you are going to punish innocent athletes and why are you going to do it again when they have already had to compete against cheats during their career?” Radcliffe said.

UK Athletics also proposed a lifetime ban for British athletes guilty of a serious anti-doping violation, rather than the current standard of four-year suspensions.

“Greater transparency, tougher sanctions, longer bans — and even resetting the clock on world records for a new era — we should be open to do whatever it takes to restore credibility in the sport,” Warner said.

UK Athletics also proposed:

•creation of a public register of athletes being tested.

•sponsors should withhold support of athletes caught doping.

•member federations should be accountable for loss of prize money to athletes of other nationalities if their athlete’s medal-winning result is later annulled.

•minimum bans for serious doping offenses should be extended to eight years to ensure cheats miss two Olympic and Paralympic cycles.

•the supply or procurement of performance-enhancing drugs should be criminalized.

Russia is banned from international track and field after a report commissioned by WADA alleged widespread doping and cover-ups in the country. Last week, two Russian officials and the son of former IAAF President Lamine Diack were banned for life for engaging in blackmail, bribery and extortion to cover up a Russian doping case.

Diack also is under criminal investigation in France over allegations he took payments for deferring sanctions against Russian drugs cheats.

The IAAF said it welcomed the proposals from UK Athletics, adding: “We look forward to reviewing the recommendations in full over the coming days.”

Dick Pound, chairman of the WADA’s independent commission, will announce the second part of the findings of his investigation Thursday.

Doping delays in 2012 admitted

MOSCOW — Track and field’s world governing body has admitted that “suspicious delays” by its top anti-doping official allowed four Russian athletes to compete at the 2012 London Olympics when they should have been suspended, including one race walker who won a silver medal.

The IAAF agreed with charges previously leveled in a report by a commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency that the four Russians cases were unreasonably delayed, but denied that there was any wrongdoing in four more cases, including those of two Olympic gold medalists.

In a lengthy statement sent by the IAAF to WADA on Friday and released Monday, the IAAF blamed its former anti-doping director, Gabriel Dolle, saying he held up doping cases against the athletes long enough to let them race at the Olympics.

Dolle received a five-year ban last week from the ethics commission of the International Association of Athletics Federation in connection with alleged extortion and bribery to cover up a Russian doping case. He also is under criminal investigation in France into alleged corruption at the IAAF.

Associated Press

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